Pros and cons of lav mics
For many projects, a lavalier microphone is essential. There are many situations in which a lav mic will save the day. Let's look at some pros:
Discreet
The biggest selling point of lapel microphones is their ability to be hidden. This means the ability to record clean audio directly from the actor is possible in just about any circumstance. And just because it's called a lapel mic doesn't mean it can only attach to a jacket with a lapel. As we'll see, there are many ways to hide a lapel mic.
Portable
If your actor is planning on standing still, portability might not seem like a bonus. But what about every other scene when they're pacing a room, running down a street or if you have two actors far apart? A single boom operator won't be able to follow or catch everything. This is where blocking and staging your scenes ahead of time will inform the best way to record the audio.
Hands-Free
Once the lavalier microphone is attached, turned on and levels are set, it requires very little operation. Especially when using a wireless lavalier microphone, you can have 10 actors mic'd at once and all the sound recordist has to do is monitor and mix from their station.
That being said, lapel mics, especially wireless lavalier microphones, present challenges of their own. Here are some cons:
Clothing
Clothing rustle can be a challenge. If the lav mic is not positioned properly, you can spend minutes of valuable time on set trying to adjust for clean audio. To help avoid this, you might do tests during Pre-Production with the actors, their wardrobe and the microphones to do the troubleshooting in advance.
Quality
Sound quality can sometimes be lower than other microphone types. Where portability and invisibility are clear advantages, there can be a dropoff in quality.
Power
Lavalier microphones are battery-powered so be prepared to change and recharge batteries at particularly inopprtune times. Make sure you have extra batteries fully charged and waiting to minimize the disruption when a battery dies.
Of course, each brand of lavalier microphone has different characteristics and attributes. Let's take a look at how five different and affordable lapel microphones compare.
